


Letting the Chat out of the bag

by CompletelySiriusContent



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: A sprinkle of Ladrien too, Adrinette, Also there's puns of course, Basically reveal happens because of a cat that Chat finds, F/M, Fluff, Has some Marichat too, I tried to include all the sides of the love square, Identity Reveal, Random idea that popped into my head when I've seen some fanart one day, This happens at any point after Despair Bear, When I said fluff I wasn't joking, adrienette - Freeform, mostly ladynoir, or after NY special
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 07:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30068556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CompletelySiriusContent/pseuds/CompletelySiriusContent
Summary: Chat Noir finds a cat. He acts like a cat himself to gain its trust. They play like the two cats they are. Ladybug also has fun seeing them run around and play.This, of course, leads into somepurrfectmoments between the two superheroes (and the cat). They might have one more neuron than usual when it matters, but they still don't have a lot of them.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 4
Kudos: 77





	Letting the Chat out of the bag

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic came to me when I saw [this fanart](https://spiderqueenpc.tumblr.com/post/643112667540750336/cat-and-catboy-colored-edition) of Chat and a random black cat, definitely go check out the source of inspiration. for this Enjoy the fluff!

It was another patrol night for Chat and his lady. This time he arrived early since his day hadn’t been the best. His father didn’t let him go out with Marinette, Nino and Alya – _again_ – so he was eager to at least spend some time with Ladybug, even if it meant having to keep an eye out for akumas for a few hours. She probably wouldn’t arrive for some time if his instincts were right (and to be honest, his feline instincts were rarely wrong).

It was a full moon and there was no cloud in sight. Chat Noir sat on a tall Parisian building, looking for her. But his gaze was attracted by something moving way in the corner of his eye. His cat-like vision definitely helped seeing the tiniest of movements. He looked directly at where the source was and it… disappeared in the shadows? He jumped off to investigate, landing silently on the pavement.

Looking around, he wasn’t seeing anything out of the ordinary other than a few stacks of boxes which occupied half of the sidewalk. He started to search the area, looking behind the said boxes. Chat was glad he could see pretty well in the dark since the streetlight wasn’t functioning in that zone (the moon also helped). Lo and behold, from behind one of the last boxes two green eyes looked at him.

It was another black cat! It did look pretty scared though, so Chat backed away while still looking it in the eyes. The cat had its gaze fixed on him, which gave him time to examine it. It was as black as black cats went, rivalling his suit. It looked pretty young, but bigger than a kitten; also, it didn’t look to be starved, the nearby people probably fed it often enough. It had a golden bell just like his, except it was absolutely tiny in comparison. Its fur looked remarkably well for a street cat – it probably didn’t get into too many fights.

Chat sat on the ground with his legs crossed, still looking at the other cat. It didn’t look as scared as it inched forward out from behind the box. It smelled the air in Chat’s direction, making him second guess if he actually took that shower before he got out. The cat got even closer, sniffing the area around him. Chat followed it around with his eyes as it took a few round trips around him, smelling his boots, his legs, his tail, his gloved hands. He reached out to pet it but the cat ran away. As on a cue, he heard a familiar yo-yo grip around a streetlight and someone doing landing really soft near him. She was as stunning as ever, with her hair black as night, her pretty bluebell eyes and her spots, of course.

“M'lady, you’ve missed the second-best cat in the world!”

“Oh, did I?”

“Yes! He was black just like me and it even had a golden bell” – Chat pointed towards his – “like mine, only tiny! He did seem quite shy though…”

“Aww, kitty, I’m sure you’ll see him another day.”

“I sure hope so, I haven’t even given him a name yet… what do you think of Purrince?”

Ladybug giggled at his pun. “It’s great Chat Noir, I’m sure he’ll like it.”

Her smile was definitely the highlight of his every day. Her smile just made him generate huge amounts of serotonin. Her smile…

The rest of the patrol went as usual, but the black cat was still in a corner of his mind. He was surprised by the fact that a tiny cat could still remain in his mind even when Ladybug pretty much occupied all of it during a patrol with her.

Dropping through his window, Adrien whispered “Claws in”. Plagg instantly went to the cheese storage.

“I’m glad you at least called _it_ second best.”

“Well he can’t compete with us, Plagg, of course.”

Several days have passed since Chat Noir has seen Purrince around the boxes on that street or anywhere for that matter. Sure, he has seen a lot of cats in Paris but none of them were black or had a tiny golden bell. He thought he wasn’t going to see it again and tried to let it go, so he just went out early again so that he could at least look at the moon. He wished he could see the stars too, but the light pollution from the city around him made it impossible to stargaze.

He was sitting with his legs crossed on the stairs at Trocadéro, having the moon and the Eiffel Tower in his sight. This place truly felt magical during the day, but now it felt really calm. You could easily come here and just meditate on whatever you felt like. For example, Chat noticed his mind was drifting to what the future held, especially her…

After some time, he remembered the day he went out as Chat because he felt like he didn’t want to be recognised as Adrien. Passing by the Trocadéro Gardens, he saw Marinette sitting on the same stairs. He approached carefully and sat down next to her. Adrien always felt like he could spend time with his friend and talk about anything, but only as his alter-cat-ego – he did notice she was really nervous around him when he talked to her as himself, but never could figure out why that was.

_“What are you doing here, Princess? Getting ideas for designs?”_

_“Precisely.”_

_“Why here of all places?”_

_“Well, I call it… my secret garden of inspiration.”_

For a few hours, he watched her draw an elaborate design for a new dress. Marinette was really absorbed into her work but she did allow him to observe (and make the occasional pun or snarky comment), so he didn’t complain. He couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking at, but he did know that it will turn out brilliant.

His daydreaming (well, more like _evening-_ dreaming) was interrupted by Purrince coming into his field of view. Chat didn’t move at all, he didn’t want to scare it again. The cat moved slowly but steadily towards him. It still sniffed him a bit, but Purrince did look more at ease around him. Trying to imitate it, Chat Noir raised his tail, making the cat jolt back, confused. Still, it stuck around for quite some time, being content to just sit in front of him and have a little staring contest (Chat lost). After some time, Purrince left, but brushed up against him affectionately right as it left.

Very soon after, Ladybug walked up to Chat and sat next to him on the stairs.

“So that’s the _best_ cat in the world?”

“M’lady, that’s the _second-best_ cat in the world. You know perfectly well who is the best one.” He, of course, flexed his biceps when he said that.

“Are you sure? Then who won the staring contest?” Chat Noir wanted to argue, but he just couldn’t beat her logic, especially when she had a big smile on her face.

The next day, for the first time in a week, Adrien didn’t have a full schedule. So, he did the only logical thing he could – he went to a pet shop to buy Purrince a new bell that actually rang. He saw many kinds of bells and collars, in all kinds of colours from red and pink to green and yellow, but none were even close to what he wanted. Not one classic golden bell. You’d think you’d at least find Chat Noir merchandise or something similar, but no. Maybe the issue with the bell was simple enough so that he could solve the next time he saw the famous ( _but not the most famous_ ) black cat.

That night, he found Purrince perched up on a random windowsill. Chat approached it carefully, but it didn’t back away or try to run. At first, Chat pet it, his claws touching the soft fur. Purrince lived up to its name, immediately starting purring. Taking a look at the bell, he noticed it wasn’t dented or anything, but actually had the tiniest piece of cardboard stuck inside it. With extra care, Chat plucked it from inside the bell and gave it a quick nudge. Sure enough, it worked perfectly, and Purrince agreed, as Chat could tell by the increased the volume of its purr. Chat continued to pet it and Purrince even nudged into his hand at times.

“Hey,” The cat looked up, having a curious gaze on its face. “you don’t seem to have any name tag, do you mind if I give you a name?”

The cat purred as a reply. “Ok, then how does Purrince sound?”

Purrince nudged him while also maintaining the purring engine at low revs. Chat gave himself a mental selfhigh five. “I take that as a yes.”

Chat pet him for a little longer, but Purrince had enough pets for a day. It leaped off the windowsill and scurried away to a nearby alley. “Well, I do understand the low attention span, I can’t blame you.” He sat there for a few seconds with a smile on his face knowing that now Purrince trusted him. He then leaped across Paris to go meet his lady for tonight’s patrol.

The next night, he found Purrince almost immediately when he got near to the meeting spot with Ladybug. But this time he came prepared – he brought a bouncy ball. But it did come at a cost – it took him a while to find since Plagg was unwilling to help him ( _oh, so now you bring that thing a ball too_), meaning his lady was already waiting for him.

At first, he simply tried to roll the ball to the cat, but Purrince didn’t want to play with it for some reason. It just lazily rolled the ball back to Chat with its paw. That was when Ladybug, standing a few meters back, had a brilliant idea.

“Chat, give me the ball.”

“I don’t think Purrince fully trusts you yet m’lady…”

“Silly cat, just throw me the ball and get ready.”

Chat Noir did wonder what she was going to do but did as instructed. His lady caught the ball, looked around for a few seconds, then threw the ball in a direction where there was a lot of empty space. As soon as the ball bounced the first time off the concrete, Purrince shot towards it. With a bit of hesitation, Chat surrendered himself to his feline instincts and ran towards the ball on all four. However, Purrince did arrive to the ball way faster than he did, being an actual cat. They both played with the ball way too much (especially for him), but they both had fun. Actually, all three of them had fun, judging by Ladybug’s laugh. Since there was no akuma attack that night, the fun continued well beyond exhaustion.

It was the same every time he brought a bouncy ball. Pure fun. After a few days, Ladybug thought she could spice things up a bit. She brought a laser pointer that was as weak as possible as to not hurt any of the two… cats. She was also extremely careful not to shine it anywhere near their eyes. She sat higher than them and led them to a wild chase, dubbed by Chat as “The Great Chase of the Wild Red Dot”. Both of them were running around, chasing the dot, even climbing nearby walls. Ladybug had the most fun when she was shining the laser on a wall she _knew_ none of them could reach it, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying. Chat could jump a lot higher than Purrince, but his claws were way too big to almost any wall. By contrast, Purrince could barely jump but he could stick to a lot of walls like nobody’s business. However, they both had their limits, but they were nothing compared to the power of simply moving the laser up a bit.

In addition to these fun activities, there were nights when Purrince would just curl up right against Chat and start purring after he pet it a few times. Soon after, the purring would become more and more subtle until it fell asleep. Amazingly, this only happened on the nights when there wasn’t an akuma, almost like Purrince had enhanced cat senses. As soon as they discovered the corelation, they relaxed each of those nights, discussing random things, from homework advice to new fashion products. Chat really enjoyed those moments, as they were the only days he could talk to Ladybug without being on high alert in case of an attack. Of course, being more relaxed meant a higher concentration of puns when he was speaking and a higher quantity of _ughh_ ’s coming from Ladybug (but, deep down, she enjoyed them, as she did smile a lot more often).

* * *

Today, Marinette had a tiring day at school. But Ladybug only started her day when a late night akuma attack happened. Chat Noir was tired too, it seemed he had a long day too. But not only was he tired, he also looked sad, especially compared to last weeks.

“What happened, kitty? You look miserable.”

“It’s nothing, m’lady…”

“Oh, really? Then how come I haven’t heard a pun from you for at least 72 hours?”

It took Chat a few seconds before he responded, starting with a long sigh. “It’s Purrince, I haven’t seen him for a few days.”

“Oh, Chat… I’m sure Purrince is alright, we did patrol other areas of Paris this week, maybe that’s why he didn’t show up.”

Chat looked at her and smiled for the first time today. “Yeah, that’s probably it. Thank you, m’lady.”

Moments after that, both of their phones (well, yo-yo and stick) went off, signalling an akuma attack. They ran as fast as they could towards it.

They defeated the supervillain easily, as they usually did. They were unstoppable as a duo, if every single battle until now was anything to go by. After Ladybug comforted the victim and made sure they could get home safely, she leaped on top of a rooftop. Unfortunately, Chat Noir left as soon as she caught the akuma, as he did have to use his Cataclysm really early in the battle. She didn’t have to go straight home though; tonight, she wanted to hang around and jump around the buildings of Paris. She stopped on top of one that seemed to be a bit taller but also more out of the way.

“Spots off.” Marinette whispered while taking out some macaroons out of her pink purse for her and, most importantly, Tikki.

“Aren’t you going home, Marinette?”

“Not right now, Tikki. I feel like wasting some time.”

Soon after, she was back soaring in the sky, but she wasn’t in a hurry. Maybe that’s why she was able to spot a familiar black cat, walking proudly on the sidewalk without being disturbed by anyone. Out of pure curiosity, she followed Purrince from the rooftops. Chat Noir was basically best buds with the cat, but she didn’t think she could get even remotely close to it without him around. She may have played with it with the laser, but she hasn’t yet tried to pet it until now. Ironically, if she had got Purrince’s trust, she probably couldn’t have followed it right now, either because she would’ve just gone to it for a few pets or because it would’ve sensed her. Either way, now she was on a mission. A stealth mission to find out where Purrince was going. She didn’t even look in the distance on where she could end up as she wanted to get surprised.

* * *

Adrien had a tiring day at school. Then a late night akuma had to be dealt with by his other purrsonality. He wished he could have talked to Ladybug a bit more, but he had to leave quickly as he only had a couple of minutes until he transformed back – and the rules were still rules. Now that he arrived home, he hoped he could study at least a bit. He remembered he had a test planned for tomorrow but he couldn’t be bothered with it. He couldn’t even get any sleep in, unlike Plagg. He was definitely still thinking about his lady, but he was also sad that he wasn’t able to play with Purrince for a few nights now.

He resigned to looking out of his windows. The starless sky stretched black but with faint hues of pink and orange from the city lights. The buildings right in front of him were definitely not as colourful, but then his gaze dropped even lower and he saw the statue of his mother. A lot of memories tried flooding his mind but he blocked them out; the very recent memory of his lady definitely helped him.

Adrien still looked down however – and very soon he was glad he did that. A very familiar black cat just walked to a spot just in front of the statue and looked up at him. Instantly, a smile appeared on his face. Even this far away, he could tell Purrince wanted to play, but it was weird that it recognised him without the suit. Even more, how was he able to get to his house? Maybe his scent was that strong to be picked up, as he did run all over Paris every day.

Adrien wasn’t able to ignore the pleas from the black cat. Not wanting to wake up Plagg, he picked him up with extra care and put him in the inside pocket of his shirt. He wanted to get the bouncy ball too, but he wasn’t able to find it. He went outside not through the door, as the security cameras would’ve probably picked up his late-night outing, but by jumping through the window. However, he was way more cautious than usual, as he would be badly injured if he fell to the ground, unlike every time he did this as Chat Noir. The backyard didn’t have any cameras (maybe his father thought the back walls were high enough to protect them from anything that wasn’t a supervillain), so this would be his and Purrince’s little secret.

As soon as he touched the ground, the black cat came to him and rubbed against his legs. He promptly responded with some pets. Naturally, Purrince responded back by purring loudly. However, their play session had to be paused when his la- Ladybug suddenly dropped into his yard, a few meters away from them.

“M’la- Ladybug? Did something happen?”

“H-Hello, A-Adrien. No, everything’s ok. I was just bored so I decided to take a stroll across Paris, but then I saw this black cat and changed my mind. Instead, I followed him to see where he went and then-I-saw-you-near-him-and-thought-I’d-come-to-just-talk.” She spoke faster and faster, almost like she didn’t want him to hear everything she said.

“Oh, yeah, I get what you mean about being bored. Also, it’s _impawssible_ to resist Purrince, I mean, look at him.” He promptly pet it near its tail and Purrince flopped onto him. He continued to pet its belly, as he discovered Purrince was one of those cats who didn’t mind that. However, Ladybug had an expression on her face he has never seen, neither as Adrien nor as Chat Noir. Did he say something wrong?

“Ladybug, are you sure you’re ok, you don’t look-”

“That’s the name that… and it’s like he knows you for some time… and the pun...”

“What do you mean- oh no-”

And that’s when the realisation kicked in.

“YOU’RE **_CHAT NOIR_** _??!!??_ ”

Ladybug was going crazy, going back and forth continuously. Even if now someone else other than Master Fu knew who he was as Chat Noir, at least it was his lady. Things could’ve been worse.

“ _ADRIEN AGRESTE_ , MY CLASSMATE, IS _**CHAT NOIR**_ … AND OUT OF _ALL_ THE BOYS, IT’S THE _ONE_ \- NO, THIS IS A DISASTER, _THIS. IS. A. DISASTER_ -”

“Wait… _this is a disaster_ … _classmate_ … MARINETTE?!?!??!”

Things were now worse.

Alas, it took both of them a good few minutes to calm down in which both of them sat down on the ground with the backs against each other, rocking backwards and forwards, murmuring “Adrien is Chat Noir, Chat Noir is Adrien” and “Ladybug is Marinette, Marinette is Ladybug”, over and over. Purrince was curled against him, not being aware of the shock that they both were going through. Eventually, they both calmed down, got up and hugged tightly, not letting go for another several minutes. After they parted, they both said the same thing.

“Am I right about it- no, you go first-“ They both blushed deeply.

Since they both couldn’t properly use words, Adrien had an idea: what if they didn’t? Adrien was glad he brought Plagg, as this was going to be easier than he thought. He just tapped his shirt where Plagg was sleeping on the inside. The grumpy kwami promptly responded.

“ _Can’t I get a nice sleep for once? Am I asking for too much?_ ”

Ladybug (Marinette? Buginette?) giggled. But then she did something he didn’t fully expect. She approached him, put her hands around his neck, buried her face into his right shoulder and slowly started to rotate, like a dance. He rested his head against hers and gave into the dance. Their silent dance was only stopped by Purrince, who meowed for attention. They looked down to him, mentally thanking the ball of fluff that this happened. Marinette looked Adrien in the eyes with an expression he’s never noticed until now. Very soon, she broke the silence, but without ever averting her gaze or moving away from him.

“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

“You mean… the _Chat_ is out of the bag.”

Both of them smiled, looking forward to the future.

**Author's Note:**

> So... how was it? I hope I didn't do that bad of a job for my first MLB fanfiction.  
> Definitely check the fanart without which I wouldn't have sketched a random idea for a fic on [my tumblr](https://completelysiriuscontent.tumblr.com/post/644403209077768192/so-recently-i-saw-this-post-of-chat-noir-and-a).  
> Special thanks go to a friend who also writes MLB fanfics, and I can guarantee [her works](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillon10/pseuds/Papillon10) are really good (check out her most recent one, _Red and White Strings_ as it is themed for this time of the year, and definitely _Outstanding Moves_ if you want the love square, but also funny jokes and memes, _**lots**_ of memes).


End file.
